Comments on: OpenEd Week “X”

By: Antonio Fini

Antonio Fini — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:39:59 +0000

I agree with Megan and Karen on the need of time for reading and commenting others’ posts. Discussing with the colleagues is a valuable opportunity, but we need time. Now I’m able to read not more than one or two posts, because the new week’s assignment is waiting for my attention
I see this is a problem for the English natives, too..
Furthermore, I appreciated your summarization for first week’s tasks. I guess it’s more useful than individual comments (even if they are always welcome ) because it add a definite “conclusion” to the work of the week.
As I said in my latest post, I realize this is quite …unsustainable with more than ten students or so.
Finally, I’m not convinced about the chat: it seems to me too difficult to organize for timing and very hard to manage, if dozens of us decided to attend. I experienced very poor chats in similar situations..

By: Stian Haklev

Stian Haklev — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:14:55 +0000

HI David,

I am very glad that this topic came up, as it is something I think several of us have been thinking. For my own sake, I understand that it is a big commitment to be following and commenting on so many posts and ideas every week, but I guess in hearing nothing from you at all about the course, we feel that we are left to “sail our own sea”… here are some thoughts

- I’d really like to hear more about your self-reflective thoughts about this course, how you feel it is going, and how you’d organize it differently, or how you will organize it differently if you are teaching it again (which I hope you will!)
- perhaps limiting enrollment would be a good idea – probably on a first-come first-serve basis. Since all the material is open, everyone else would be able to read all the material, read every blog, and even publish on their own blog – they just wouldn’t be in the blogroll and you wouldn’t be obliged to read their blogs etc.
- we should probably consider what technologies we use to conduct this class. I really like the fact that no synchronous presence is necessary, since it’s hard with different timezones and responsabilities, but the possibility of one – for example once a week just assigning a time and place for people who want to to meet and discuss would be useful. You wouldn’t have to attend if you didn’t have time.
- Perhaps having a co-tutor, like a TA, who would help read the blogs and provide comments, join the chat etc. I am sure, for such an interesting topic, you might be able to find someone to do it voluntarily.
- Blogs are good for publishing longer “essays” that stand on their own – the fact that we publish them on our own blogs is nice, because it gives it more “personal” identity, and people not in this course can come across them. However a) I read all the blogs through Google Reader, and thus I miss the comments. b) We really need a “back-channel”, whether a forum or a mailing list, where we can have more of a running dynamic conversation about this forum, how it’s going, how we are feeeling, how we’d like to do it differently etc. Apparently edocet’s concern has already been discussed among the Italian speakers because they already belong to one online community, but hasn’t been shared with the rest of the group, because there was no place to do that, except post a blog, which is somewhat “bombastic” – especially if it’s just for a question (like “where are the interviews listed in the curriculum”)
-I really liked your “summary” posts during the first week, and I would love it if you could continue doing that. You don’t need to cite us all by far, but just highlighting a few interesting thoughts or ideas, and kind of “pulling it all together” before we move on.
-I also second Megan’s post about a schedule were we first have to post our first impressions on the readings, and then a few days later blog about other people’s thoughts.

Stian
apologies for the long message – I really think this is a wonderful initiative, and I am learning a lot, both about the content, but also in reflecting about the course delivery! THank you!
(I will post this on my blog as well – since many people don’t read blog comments)

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:02:22 +0000

I keep checking back to Dave’s blog, expecting to see his review of other people’s postings. I hadn’t realized that the comments on our individual posts had replaced his ‘best of’ posts…just that they weren’t happening. I have appreciated the individual feedback on postings.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:05:03 +0000

Megan, great point. We need to have some time after someone posts to respond. I often find myself looking for something to talk with someone about on this weeks readings but the only posts that are available are last weeks’. A common place to dialog would be nice too, but I am not so keen on the chat idea. I would first like to see how the common dialog place works.

By: Megan Haggerty

Megan Haggerty — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:36:46 +0000

Hi Dave,

First, although I agree that it has been hard in this course to connect with others, I do want to thank you for trying this innovative approach to education – just the fact that I can learn in a group without being registered at a Uni is a great thing. And as Karen commented on my blog this week – it has certainly allowed us to “reflect on online course design and community building.”

Just in case others haven’t caught it, I want to reiterate two suggestions:

1. Alessandro, Stian and Karen have all suggested a common place to dialogue – perhaps on the opencontent.org site. Alessandro has created it as “MEETINGPOINT”, under discussion – GREAT!

2. For next year, karen and i agree: . “I would like a schedule that had reading and writing one week and then reading others’ thoughts and responding the following week. It would also be nice to have some structured iteration back to previous course topics since it’s all so related.”

By: Chenyong(Jessie) Zhu

Chenyong(Jessie) Zhu — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:59:19 +0000

Now I feel much better after reading this post. I was thinking I am the only one student get some confusion. I tried to read other classmates’ blogs, but often i can only find very few students point directly to the weekly reading. Houshuang,Greg, and Karen’s blogs are the best ones i like and their thoughts take me to many different viewpoints. I learned a lot more from them than just read the article myself and straggle to answer the questions.

I can understand it is hard to give feedback to all the students in this class because of the large quanlity of students. So help each other in class is very important. I would love to have some synchronous chatting even I know it is kind of hard because of the different time zones. And I also like the idea of having the highlights and commentary all on this blog for each week if your time is allowed. I also understand it is hard to make this highly involved course successful with so many students and also with a great lot of work traveling.